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Catholic schools embrace the iPad as the new textbook

Photo by Greg Watry/New Jersey Herald - Eighth-graders Bridget Murphy and Alyssa Talon, of Pope John, use the iPad during classroom work. Last year all Pope John’s eighth-grade students began using the iPad.

Posted: Mar. 19, 2014 11:41 pm Updated: Mar. 23, 2014 12:59 am

By GREG WATRY

gwatry@njherald.com

SPARTA — With limitless amounts of information available online, technology is becoming an integral part of the education experience. Next fall, the Catholic Academy of Sussex County will implement the use of iPads for all students in grades five through 12.

The academy is made up of five schools that span Sussex and Morris counties: Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, Rev. George A. Brown Memorial School in Sparta, St. Joseph Regional School in Newton, Immaculate Conception Regional School in Franklin and St. Michael School in Netcong.

“What this really does is it changes the dynamic of the classroom,” said Brian Vohden, interim principal of Pope John. “It’s not necessarily what we call ‘the sage on the stage’ anymore.”

“All the information in the world is in the kid’s hand at that moment,” he added. “It really changes the way you teach a class. Now you’re teaching kids how to find information rather than just giving them information.”

Faculty and staff of Pope John are no strangers to the iPad, and have been using the device for a few years already. The trickle down effect to the students is currently in motion.

“The tricky thing in all of this is we’re one of the first schools in the state to be doing this. ... What goes along with that is you learn lessons along the way,” he said.

Last year all Pope John’s eighth-grade students began using the iPad, Vohden said. “So our eighth-graders did not have traditional textbooks.” After the success of the rollout, the school expanded the use of iPads to the ninth-grade class during the 2013-2014 school year.

While students and their families are responsible for purchasing their own iPads, the practice is not different from Pope John’s previous approach to textbooks.

About four years ago, the school switched to students purchasing their own textbooks, Vohden said. “We’ve now taken the next step. Instead of buying all your books, you buy an iPad.”

Apple.com’s store advertises the iPad 2 from $399 to $529, based on the package. The digital textbooks can be as low cost as $2-$3 all the way to $40-$50, Vohden said. It really depends on the subject. At the end of the day, the digital copy is cheaper than the print counterpart, he said.

“The digital textbooks are unbelievable,” Vohden added. “Instead of a static book, you’re looking at multimedia. ... Before, in your social studies book, you looked at a picture of the expansion of the railroad, now you watch a video on the expansion of the railroad.”

With some of the books being downloadable and others being web-based, the schools have compensated for the extra Internet access available to the students.

“We’ve done major infrastructure upgrades into the millions of dollars,” Vohden said. “We need to make sure we have enough bandwidth for every kid to be able to be on the network.”

Money to upgrade the infrastructure for Pope John comes from the school’s annual technology auction. The technology auction is “our major fundraiser of the year,” said Vohden, who noted that it is a live silent auction and formal dinner.

“The proceeds from the event go towards the technology in the school,” he said.

For the past two years teachers have been participating in professional development and learning “how to incorporate the technology in the classroom (and) how to moderate the technology.”

Vohden said the academy has one employee, whose responsibility is brainstorming further ways the iPad devices can be used in the classroom. The faculty has an ongoing dialogue with the employee, who observes the teacher’s use of the iPad in the classroom and gives feedback, Vohden said.

While teachers used to watch for students doodling or throwing spitballs, Pope John faculty now have to monitor Internet activity as well. As of now, teachers are not able to monitor student activity remotely from their device, but it’s something the school is working toward, Vohden said.

Vohden said, “Ultimately, we’d like to see all the students (in the academy) on the device one way or another,” from kindergarten up. “We’re running a couple of pilots right now and just seeing how the device works” at the kindergarten through fourth-grade level.